Kays Translations

Chapter 82- Frog Pouch

Fried frogs are surprisingly popular.

For me, the meat is light and bland, so I found it a bit bland with just salt and pepper.

After everyone had eaten two pieces each, I switched to marinating them in the sauce overnight.

The flour is either wheat flour or potato starch…. I think I’ll use potato starch this time.

“Lara-chan, now let’s try putting this white powder on the meat that we zapped with a fork yesterday and marinated in the sauce before frying it.”

“Yes, I would like to cook more with you.”

In fact, potato starch is not yet sold in this world. I made it myself, extracting the starch from potatoes. It’s surprisingly easy to make potato starch as long as you have potatoes. Considering the labor involved, it is easier than grinding wheat into flour.

<<How to make potato starch>>

Peel and grate potatoes, put the grated potato into a clean fine cotton cloth, and put it in a bowl of water.

After putting in the water for a while, leave the firmer, cloudy water for about 30 minutes.

When the water is left to stand, a white substance will settle at the bottom, which will become potato starch.

After 30 minutes, the muddy water on top is discarded, water is added again, the water is stirred, and the water is left again.

After repeating this process several times, the cloudy white water in the upper part of the bowl will become clear, and when that happens, the white sediment at the bottom will be dried, and the potato starch will be ready.

The trick to obtaining good potato starch is to do this until the supernatant water is clean and clear, because as long as the water is cloudy, it is mixed with lye and other impurities.

Cut the sauce-marinated frog meat into reasonable-sized pieces and evenly cover them with potato starch.

“The frying method is the same as before, so be careful not to let the oil splash and put it in gently. Be careful to remove the excess flour, or the oil will get dirty quickly.”

“I understand, cooking is fun!”

Lara-chan seemed to be completely hooked on cooking.

I caught my own fish, cooked it myself, and ate it with others. …… It was my uncle who introduced me to the joy of this experience when I was 12 years old after he took me kiss fishing because I was playing piano all the time and barely left the house.

He taught me how to handle the fish I caught for the fist time and how to make tempura, saying, “Let’s make tempura for dinner”. The smile on his face when everyone tasted my first tempura and said, “Delicious!”

I had put a string around the tempura in advance in hopes that Lara-chan would experience the same feeling, and judging by her smile, it seemed to work.

“Wow, it’s so good! I think I like this better than the deep-fried ones.”

“Luke-niichan, I think this tastes better too!”

“Hahahahaha, it’s delicious!”

Diana came to my side and snatched a freshly fried one….. you’ll burn your tongue.

Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside with a punch of soy sauce, garlic and ginger. I guess there is not much juice in the meat, but it is juicy enough to soak up the sauce since I had chopped it up with a fork.

Before Diana eats all of them, I’m going to secure 21 pieces of the sauce-soaked fried chicken and store them in my [inventory].

It’s so well received by everyone that I can’t keep up with frying it.

I’m a little short on fried food alone, so I ask the kitchen to serve me bread, salad, and easy egg soup.

“Lara-chan, isn’t it the best when you catch it yourself, process it yourself, and cook it yourself?”

“Yes, very tasty!”

“Thank you, Luke-san. It must have been a great experience for her. Lara, Anna, Emilia, let’s not forget that the meat we usually eat was hunted, cut up and cooked by someone like this, and we should be grateful for it.”

““Yes, mother.””

The luncheon ended with great success, and we discovered that frogs are surprisingly tasty.

A little dirty, but the oil still looks usable. It would be a shame to throw it away.

I got out my homemade slicer and sliced the peeled potatoes into thin slices by shuffling them back and forth.

A quick fry, a sprinkle of salt, and the potato chips are ready to eat.

“““Delicious!”””

“My Lord, What is this?”

Diana is noisy …… everyone likes it too.

But is it any wonder they are more popular than fried frogs?

Needless to say, the fried food duel was a complete victory for the potato chips.

*** * * *

“Oh, my husband just sent me an email…… It doesn’t look like it’s going to stop raining, so he’s going to come home tomorrow.”

I looked outside and saw that it was raining pretty hard here too.

I sometimes put on my rain gear and fly in the rain at Drake’s, but if it’s not an emergency, it’s better not to fly for safety’s sake.

“Mifa, Lara and I were going to go get a first job this afternoon, but the rain is so bad we’re going to have to postpone it until tomorrow. We don’t want to get wet and catch a cold.”

“That’s true. I’m tempted to check the difference in status after getting the job, but I think we’ll do it tomorrow.”

“I was looking forward to it…… it’s a shame.”

“Ahaha, I’m sorry Lara-chan~. But if you get wet and your body gets cold and you catch a cold, I’ll be scolded by the scary servants.”

The chief maid glared at me again for saying something unnecessary.

The two of them looked extremely disappointed.

“I think it would be better to ask the king or the master about the choice of the job. ……”

The head maid, just as her name was mentioned, entered the conversation and made her suggestion.

“I think it might be a good idea to ask my master’s opinion as well.”

It was a job choice that would affect her for the rest of her life, and she needed her father’s permission to do it?

“Mother-in-law, she can’t make a life-long job choice on her own, and she needs her father’s permission?”

“Rather than asking for permission, my Guile will sulk if I make a decision on my own without consulting him…”

I see. …… “My Guile” is a child who sulks easily!

“I see… What about Mifa? Is King Zeno the type that sulks when you get to make decisions on your own?”

“Yes, my father might be the type to sulk.”

“Then, thanks to the chief maid, I’ve avoided been pestered by your fathers.”

Well, it’s important to put on a good face for your parents.

“What do you think would be a good first job for me, Luke-sama?”

Mifa asked me what job she was going to get.

“Both Mifa and Lara’s first job will be as magicians.”

“Is that so?”

“Luke-niichan, I was told that I’m more suited to be a swordsman than a magician.”

“That’s right, Lara would actually grow better if she takes advantage of her physical enhancement of the fire system. If it’s a job that makes use of it, [Swordsman] or [Warrior] would be good, but it’s hard to build a body from a young age. Either way, it’s not good, so it’s definitely better to increase magic power that grows well when you’re a child.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. If you’re from a family of knights like Erica who’ve been guarding and escorting for generations, it’s better to choose the [Swordsman] job, but Lara is the daughter of a Duke who’s protected, so swordsmanship is fine for self-defense. If Lara is a boy, it would be better to take the highly aptitude [Swordsman] and train in earnest, but if you are a high-ranking noble girl, you should take [Magician] and be able to support the vanguard. What do you think of Erica, the professional escort?”

“I think I agree with Luke-sama’s opinion. If someone in the position of Mifa-sama or Lara-sama got off the carriage and fought alongside the escorts, it would already be a dead end. In that case, it would be a great help if they could shoot magic from behind and support the escort and confuse the enemy.」

“That’s right.  If Lara-chan prefers swordsmanship, she can choose the knight course and change her job to [Swordsman] when she attends the academy.”

After listening to my explanation, both Lara and Mifa seemed to have decided that their first job would be as magicians.

I guess it was time to end the luncheon.

“Lara-chan, come over here for a minute.”

“Yes, Luke-niichan?”

I handed Lara a present as she came over to me.

“It’s a ‘frog pouch bag’ made from the skin of Lara’s first game.”

“It’s a cute little pink frog ♡”

The moo moo frog has a grotesque dark brown and green camouflage pattern on the back of the frog, but the belly was white, so I dyed it using food coloring and it turned pink.

The size of the frog is about 20 cm (length), 15 cm (width), and 10 cm (girth).

It looks like a cute deformed pink frog. The front of the frog is on its back, with big, round eyes. The belly is left white, which also looks kind of cute.

And the frog’s mouth is a toad’s mouth, like a toad’s purse, which can be opened by twisting the pouch.

The metal part of the mouth is the part that I was jiggling hard with a file last night.

From both ends of the mouth, there is a shoulder strap made of arachnid spider silk and dyed pink.

“Lara-chan, this is not just a pouch bag, it is a subspace storage pouch with a time stop function, so take good care of it.”

“Luke-san, wait a minute! Is it a “storage pouch” with a “time stop” function?”

Sasha-san asked in a panic. Well, aside from the [storage pouch], a [time stop] function that prevents things from rotting is an extremely rare thing.

“Yes, each square weighs 10 kg, but it can hold 50 squares, which is the equivalent of one frame. Since it has a [personal authentication] function, only Lara-chan can use it, but for Lara, who doesn’t have much aptitude for the dark attribute, it will be something that will make her life more convenient and gratifying.”

“May I have such a national treasure class item? Huh? I heard you made it just now, Luke-san….”

“I can do a lot of things now that I have the blessings of the divine beast Hati and the ancient dragon Diana. Of course, I will only make them for people who I like, and there will be no end to the number of people who say, ‘I want one too,’ so please don’t tell anyone that I can make them.”

I’m going to go with this excuse because it’s not true, but it’s not a lie either.

Luke-kun has carefully concealed his ability as a medicine man, partly on the advice of his master, but I am going to do what I want to do. Because Diana and Hati’s mother are so strong, if you want to harm me, I’ll ask Diana to put an end to it!

Well, it’s pathetic that I’m relying on others, but it means that if you harm me, I’m prepared to do so to the extent that my country will cease to exist. Since I have a means of defense, I intend to do whatever I want without hesitation and without hiding my useful cheat ability.

I take Lara’s hand and prick a needle into her thumb and drip blood onto the crest with the grant of the metal part of the toadstool. When the crest glows faintly, it becomes retractable, and from then on, only Lara and I, the creator, can take it in and out.

“[Aqua Heal]. To use it, put your left hand inside the opening, point your right hand at the object you want to store, and imagine that you are putting it into the subspace warehouse, and it will be stored in the subspace of the pouch. While your hand is in the gadget, a status plate will appear and display the same information as in the subspace warehouse, making it easy to check the available space and what is in the pouch. It’s a little tricky to get it out, so practice by taking something in and out.”

Lara-chan was so excited that she took a plate of potato chips in and out several times.

“Luke-niichan you’re amazing! I’ll take good care of it♡”

“”Only Lara-chan is cheating!””

Well, I expected that would be the case…. I had planned to make something more mature and fashionable out of cowhide after I got the mithril for the team members, but do you want one too, Anna-chan?

“I want a frog pouch too!”

“No, Diana you’re the black dragon and you specialize in the dark attribute, and your [subspace storage] capacity is much larger than mine!”

“You don’t understand Master! I don’t want a storage pouch, I want a cute frog pouch!”

Kuh! She’s a dragon, but she’s begging me in such a cute way.

I’m going to have to make one for everyone after all.

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